Real Steel: Firelight
by Icy Metal and Frost Blue Roses
Summary: Emma is a teenage WRB fanatic and mechanic trying to become her own person and it comes along in the form of creating her own fighting robot. But nothing can prepare Emma for the fact that her robot has a mind of its own. Now not only is she trying to get into the WRB, but now she has to keep Firelight's secret from getting out. Question is: how long will it last? Eventual OC/OC.
1. Creating Firelight

_Real Steel: Firelight_

Emma, Firelight, Jack, Rick, Henry, Rain Shadow, Jett, and Axon are mine. Story contains spoilers for the movie, if you haven't seen it, don't read it. I am going to be going between different POV's, so let's just get on with the story! This is my very first time writing for this fandom, so bear with me. This may or may not get better as I write it so please don't be mean to me if you don't like it. Read and review please! :D

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

"You're not still working on that hunk of junk are you?"

Scowling, I looked up at the man that had spoken and replied, "Yes, yes I am. What's it even matter to you, Jack?" The man came closer and took a seat across from the huge metal form I've been working on as he said, "Emma, I don't wanna break your sweet little heart, but this thing ain't ever gonna power up."

"Oh, I'd love to hear you say that once I get Firelight into the WRB," I growled, annoyed with the man as I diverted my attention back to the eight foot, seven inch robot I've spent so much time building. After a while of ignoring my dad's friend, he left out of frustration and giving up on trying to talk me out of making my own fighting robot. Leaning back from over the robot's open chest cavity, I wiped the sweat off my forehead and closed the piece of armor, reaching for the remote sitting beside me and climbed off the table before turning the robot on and jolting back as the robot's optics lit up and lifted it's head to look around before sitting upright and staring at me.

At seeing Firelight online, I laughed and leaned back a bit to take in the light orange and yellow robot and made a face as the robot mimicked me and leaned back. "Sweet! You work!" I exclaimed happily, leaving the robot to go inside, turning back around at the sound of heavy metal footsteps against the cement floor as Firelight followed me to the door and into the house.

Walking into the living room to see my dad, Rick, and his friends watching robot boxing on TV, I cleared my throat and the men looked over at me, beer coming out of Jack's nose at seeing the robot he said will never come online.

"His name is Firelight," I said proudly, glancing up at the robot, his blue optics looking slightly curious as they found and locked onto my blue grey eyes for a few moments. "Can you get him a fight?"

"Ain't you gonna train 'im 'fore you take 'im to a fight? I mean, you can't expect to win anything if ya ain't trained your robot, girl," Henry, another one of my dad's friends, asked, jerking his beer bottle in Firelight's direction. I mentally groaned at the one thing I made him to do and forgetting to train him for it though I just got him online ten minutes ago. "Of course, I'm gonna train him! I just don't know anything about boxing," I said rather sheepishly for making something to do something I know nothing about.

Glancing over their shoulders at the TV screen, I grinned broadly at the seven foot, six inch silver mech dancing in the middle of the ring with a young child and was sitting on the floor in an instant with Firelight in tow. Glancing over at the orange and yellow robot next to me, and seeing the unusually curious look in his optics (Firelight isn't supposed to show any kind of emotion and he is doing it anyway), I pointed to the screen and said, "That's Atom, a G2 sparring bot that actually got into the big leagues. That's where we're going next once we get you trained and noticed by fight promoters."

"Where are we going when we get noticed?"

Everyone froze at the sudden question and all eyes fell on the giant metal titan at my side, eyes wide in disbelief. "Firelight, was that you?" I asked uncertainly, looking up to meet the gaze of the robot. He nodded and spoke again, the accent sounding oddly like John Wayne with the Southern drawl that tinged a baritone voice. "Yes, I spoke. But you failed to answer MY question as to where we're going if we get noticed by these fight promoters you mentioned." "World Robot Boxing; the big leagues, if you will. If you get the attention we're wanting, we could very well end up like Atom and his tiny trainer. I mean, come on, the kid found him under a pile of crap in the junkyard and you were built in my garage, put together with crap Radio Shack threw out as unsalable, car parts, and parts from the junkyard, so what difference is there between you two? If Atom can do this and get in the big leagues, so can we," I explained and the robot nodded his head in understanding.

After a few hours of watching robot boxing and rubbing in the fact that Firelight came online in Jack's face, I got up and left for the garage with my fighting robot in tow. Picking up my cell phone, I called one of my friends that helped me create Firelight.

" 'Lo?" came Jett's voice over the line.

"Hey, Jett, I need you to get your lazy butt over here and check out Firelight. He's talking and displaying emotions on his own," I said to the youth on the other end of the phone. "That's great he came online, but I don't think he's really talking and showing emotions. The talking could probably be explained by you wiring some program into him and you didn't know its function and it was a sort of vocal program and the robot's utilizing it to communicate," the boy said, his tone suggesting cluelessness and curiosity. "How would you explain the display of emotion from the time he cam online? He was showing curiosity about the fight on TV," I countered, getting silence from the boy.

"Alright, alright. I'll be over in a minute."

"You're the best, Jett!" I said happily before disconnecting and turning to face the silent robot behind me.

"Jett?" the 'bot questioned, jerking his head towards the phone on the table in the same manner Jack did when he was talking about him.

Looking in the direction the robot kept jerking his head, I smiled and replied, "Jett's a friend of mine. He helped get me parts to put you together."

Finally after five minutes of waiting, my friend arrived. Jett is like me and sports tanned skin, dirty blonde hair, and green eyes. His shirt is white and covered in oil stains and his jeans sport holes on the knees, all bare footed and crazy, just the way he is. I greeted him with a hug and switched Firelight to manual control and sat him down for my friend to check him out.

"What do you think?" I asked, watching the young man work from over his shoulder as he inspected Firelight's inner workings. "It's unlike anything I've ever seen in a fighting robot before. I've worked on Twin Cities and Zeus before, but I have NEVER seen anything like Firelight's circuitry and wiring. You must have done something 'cause there's an interface port here to jack into anything like the Internet and download information to show artificial intelligence. I've seen some impressive stuff in famous fighting robots I've been hired to fix, but Firelight is in a league all his own with this crazy wiring you put in him," Jett answered, looking up at me with a smile.

"You never told me you worked on Zeus and Twin Cities! What else have you been hiding from me?" I asked him, punching his shoulder playfully. "Yeah, I worked on Ambush and Noisy Boy before, too. How do you like me now?" he said, laughing before turning back to Firelight, who was making faces at us before going back to a smile. Now it's Jett's turn to make a face and say, "That's interesting. When you said he was showing emotions, you weren't kidding. It's probably just pictures of faces with various expressions he downloaded off the Internet to learn how to read faces and know what they're feeling and he's trying it out for himself, showing artificial intelligence like I suggested on the phone earlier."

"Okay, before we proceed with the further inspection of my inner workings, are you going to dismantle me and correct these imperfections? I would prefer you left them alone as they make me quite unique among the other fighting robots . To be frank with you, I enjoy being able to talk and you understand me," the metal titan cut in, making us jump and Firelight issued a laugh that reverberated off the walls in the room and vibrated our bodies leaving a funny feeling in our ears when Firelight went silent, waiting for us to speak again.

"We never said we were going to 'fix' anything, Firelight. I just wanna know how you're talking at all when all the other robots don't," I reassured, patting the yellow detailed armor plating beneath his chest plating. This seemed to relax the stiffness in the robot's chassis as Firelight shuttered his optics and issued his version of a sigh of relief as the robot expelled hot air through his vents.

"I gotta get going. Mom will kill me if I'm late for dinner again," Jett said as he wiped his hands clean and left.

"Okay, now that that's done, you and I have work to do tomorrow, so power down until I come get you. Be ready, 'cause we need to get on your training if we're gonna get into the WRB," I said as I opened the port on his back and plugging the recharge hose into him, turning him off for the night.


	2. Training

(Firelight's POV)

Coming online in the dark room, I looked down at my creator and cocked my head to the side incredulously at her smiling face. The internal clock in my processor told me it's 11:46 at night and made me wonder why she would bring me out of recharge at this ungodly hour.

"Emma, what are you doing?" I asked, watching as she typed in commands and I unconsciously began following them, rising to my full height and walking out the garage door behind the girl. "We're going for a run," Emma announced as we walked down the street.

"At this time of night?" I asked her, trying to override the remote's commands as she continued pushing buttons and giving me commands. "Sure, why not? Besides, we need to begin your training as soon as we can. The sooner we get started, the sooner we can start fighting, and the sooner we get into the WRB," Emma said happily, looking up at me before holding up the remote to show me the screen with the words 'Shadow Mode' written on it. "Check this out. Boop," the girl said, pressing it and I immediately began mirroring her as she put her hands in front of her face and wiggled her fingers.

As the hours passed, we pressed further and further into learning combat moves and stances. "Bring your fists up! Left hook, right hook, and kick," Emma instructed as we put up our fists, punched, leaned back and kicked at an invisible opponent. "Again," she said, repeating the movements for the tenth time since she started teaching me these moves. "Faster, faster," she instructed and I obediently started going faster.

"What in the world are you doing?" Rick's voice rang out over Emma's drilling, prompting a pause in the new moves she's teaching me.

"Hey, Dad," the youth greeted cheerily, wiping sweat off her forehead and I did the same as I continued mirroring the girl as she went to interact with her male creator.

"How long have you two been doing this? Were you out here all night?"

"… Yes. Since 11:46 last night."

At this, Rick slapped his head and said, "I realize you want to train…" "Firelight," I interjected, looking over my shoulder as Emma did to look at me before turning back to the man. "I realize you want to train Firelight and get into the big leagues, but I seriously doubt he would survive in there. I also don't like you deciding to start training at THAT ungodly hour. Come on, now, Red, I know you keep outlandish hours, but that doesn't mean Firelight has to either," he continued, and I mentally took a picture of my creator's reaction from the unusual look on her face to flinging a few unladylike words at him for equally unusual things he does before turning back to me.

"Do you have anything you'd like to add?" she asked, glowering at me. For the sake of staying online, I shook my head and she smiled. "Good. Where were we?"

"Left hook, right hook, kick."

"You know what? Let's try something new since we've been doing the same thing for twenty minutes now, so watch me and do it yourself," Emma said, before giving an invisible enemy a left hook right uppercut, a back flip and connecting her foot with her 'opponent's' face, and upon touching the ground, dropping to the ground and kicking her leg out in one swift motion and jumped to her feet an instant later. "You got all that, big guy?" she asked, jumping back as I repeated the motion with enough speed to make Emma look like she was doing it in slow motion. Rising back to my full height over her, I mimicked what she had called a smile and replied, "Got it."

"Don't get smart, Firelight," Emma chided, shaking her head before sitting on the ground and watching me as I did the same and spread my legs out in front of me. As we sat in the silence, I reviewed the moves, both offensive and defensive, Emma taught me and the recent things I logged into my memory banks, the one thing I kept coming back to was the special name Emma's father called her. Red, I repeated to myself, glancing over at the human to take in her physical characteristics and attire from the girl's blue grey colored eyes, sun kissed skin that abruptly went to a porcelain color part way down her upper arms, the off-colored skin very much noticeable as she favored a black tank top over yesterday's WRB T-shirt, grey camouflage cargo pants, and combat boots. Looking up at the mass of auburn curls on her head, I guessed it's for the girl's hair as I absentmindedly reached over and stroked her head gently, getting her to lean into my touch and make a 'mmm' sound in pleasure of the feeling.

"You know, Firelight," she said softly, looking up at me, "if we get into the big leagues, I'll do something special for you. What that special something is, that's up to you though." I thought over the possibilities of things I could as of her before something came to mind.

"I want a female."

A stifled giggle. "You want a what?" she asked, unable to keep a smile off her face. "I want a female companion like I've seen so many human males have," I reiterated slowly to her, pointing to the street to a couple walking down the sidewalk like they don't have a care in the world, lost in each other's company.

"We'll see, Firelight. But, don't expect to get her the moment you get in the WRB," she consented, still giggling at my request but I could care less what she thought of the request because I was going to get what I wanted.


	3. First Fight and Battle Scars

(Firelight's POV)

As the months passed and summer turned to fall and fall turned to winter, the training got more and more intense as she studied every form of combat and taught it to me.

The more she shows me demonstrates I have that much more to learn from the human and from what it looks like, she's very pleased with my progress. I can tell from the cold weather that she's slowing down a bit and she's highly displeased with the change in temperature.

(Emma's POV)

At hearing the phone ring, I jolted out of my sleep and grabbed the thin glowing piece of glass and looked at the caller ID: Jett. "It's your nickel, so start talking," I mumbled. "I got Firelight a fight this Saturday at The Junction, so you're welcome," came Jett's triumphant voice, prompting me to push aside all thoughts of going back to sleep and say, "Are you serious?! You got him a fight?" "Oh, yeah, he's going against the main event: Axon. But with everything you taught him, I'd say he'd be fine," came the reply. "You're the best, Jett! I would kiss you if you told me in person!" I exclaimed excitedly. When there was no reply, I called my friend's name a few times before hanging up and getting out of bed and running to the garage to tell Firelight the news.

(Jett's POV)

I should've waited to tell her in person if I'd have known she was going to kiss me!

Oh, well. I'm so going to hold this against her and get that kiss from her at the fight on Saturday.

Coming out of recharge at the outlandish hour of midnight, I mimicked the expression that Emma had called a scowl and asked, "What on Earth are you doing booting me up at THIS hour? If it's training, can it wait till later?" "It's not that, big guy," the youth said happily. "Oh? What is so important you have to tell me now?" I replied irritatedly, watching as she looked around as if making sure that someone isn't eavesdropping on what she's about to say. "Your first fight is this Saturday at The Junction downtown. My friend Jett helped me get it for you," she said happily, patting my thigh affectionately. "Seriously? I was beginning to think you'd never say those words," I answered, getting excited myself. "Seriously. I'm gonna give you a day to relax before the fight on Saturday," she said proudly, before plugging me back in and bidding me good night.

"I was just so excited I had to tell you now, so don't be mad at me," she said, flipping the switch to turn me off again.

(Emma's POV)

Waking up hours later after telling Firelight he's going to participate in his first fight tomorrow, I kicked off the covers and headed for the kitchen. Sitting down in my usual place at the table near the window over looking the backyard, I glanced into the living room to find Firelight sitting on the floor watching the TV.

"Hey, Dad, did you happen to activate Firelight?" I asked, watching as the eight foot tall robot got up and walked down the hallway, possibly going to investigate the rest of the house. "I thought you did. He was in here watching 'Spongebob' when I walked in here. When I looked in your room, I figured you activated him in your sleep and went to lay back down," Dad replied, setting a plate full of eggs, bacon, and pancakes in front of me. I shook my head and said, "I activated him at midnight to tell him we're going to our first fight tomorrow and he can take a break from training today."

"I activated myself," came Firelight's baritone voice as he appeared from my bedroom and immediately came to my side. "You did? You're just full of surprises, ain't ya?" I said, patting his arm before pulling my phone out of my pocket to call my crazy friend down the street.

"You realize just because you keep unusual hours, it doesn't mean I do, too," Jett groaned sleepily in the phone.

"Jett, this is important," I scolded, getting a yawn before he mumbled an incoherent response. "Firelight is bringing himself out of recharge."

"What?"

"Yeah. I thought Dad did it and he thought I did it, come to find out Firelight is able to bring himself out of recharge if he wants to."

"I'll come to check it out later, just not NOW," Jett consented before abruptly disconnecting the line.

"How did you do that anyway?" I asked, looking up at the robot.

"You didn't put the recharge plug in good enough and it fell out at six o' clock this morning," the robot replied curtly. "I swear I put it in good enough. I had the cord all the way in," I responded, making a face at the robot's words.

After waiting an hour, Jett finally arrived, greeting me with a smile on his face.

"You owe me," he said as he opened the plating on Firelight's back to begin working. "What do I owe you?" I asked him curiously, wondering what exactly I owed him.

"A kiss," he replied, looking up at me with a smile on his face.

A kiss?! I blushed, prompting a curious look from Firelight and Jett's smile to broaden. "You wanna do it now?" he asked me, getting up and leaning closer to me. I leaned in a little and shied away as Jett tried to close the last few inches of air that separated our lips.

"I can't do it," I blurted, pulling away from Jett and walking into the house and straight for my room, Jett hot on my heels. "Why can't you do it, Emma?" the boy asked, sitting down next to me on the bed. "I've never kissed anyone before, Jett. I just don't know what it would be like," I said sheepishly, looking away from Jett's questioning eyes.

"Hey, you know what?" Jett asked suddenly, getting me to look over at my friend only to get his lips pressed to my own. We parted after a few seconds and stared

at the person we shared our first kiss with. "What was that about you can't kiss me?" Jett asked, laughing lightly. I scowled at this and turned away.

"Y-you're a terrible person! You can't blame me that I've never kissed someone before!" I stuttered angrily, getting up and throwing a rolled up piece of paper at him. Picking it off the floor, he unrolled it and asked, "What is this?" "That's Firelight's special request for when he gets into the WRB. He wanted a lady 'bot to keep him company in the back of the truck on the road to his matches," I replied, blushing when Jett teased, "Firelight wants a lady friend to bang up? I'm gonna have to sit down and have a talk with him about women."

(Firelight's POV)

A few minutes after Emma and Jett ran inside, Jett came back out. "What was that?" I questioned, watching as the human dragged a chair up to me and sat down. "That was nothing', big guy. Now how about you take a seat and we have a talk. Man-to-man… er, man-to-'bot," he said, chuckling before taking on a serious tone and said, "You know it's come to my attention that you've developed a liking to the opposite sex." _Oh, boy, here we go,_ I mused, not exactly paying much attention to him, only taking note of things I should be careful of and things she would appreciate from me.

Coming out of recharge the next day, Emma and Jett took me outside and loaded me into the back of a truck and closed me inside. It was a good while later that they let me out and lead me into a brightly lit room packed with people cheering for their fighters.

"Good morning, all you crazies that managed to get your asses out to The Junction!" the announcer shouted into the microphone as he stepped into the ring. "Today, we've got a 'bot participating in his first fight, Firelight!" The lights flashed, soon landing on me. "That's our cue. Keep a straight face and don't talk until we're alone. Don't want to have people know you're more than what they expect, get people tryin' to take you from me if they knew you could talk," she whispered, leading me up to the ring in the middle of the room.

"And against the main event, the undefeatable champion, Axon!" the announcer shouted again and the lights roved to the other side of the room and landing on a seven foot tall Army green and black 'bot moving calmly to the ring and stood in the opposite corner facing me.

"What's up? How you doin'?" I greeted, using the first language I knew right off the bat before downloading English so my trainer would understand me. The smaller robot froze and cocked his head to the side before saying, "You're serious this is your first fight? Ever? Good luck, because when I'm done with you, you'll be lucky to walk out of this ring still completely intact." I knew he was play threatening me and I uttered a mechanical grinding sound in my version of a growl.

At the sound of the bell, Axon came on me, crashing a fist into my arm in a blocked effort to get my face. I returned to the attack and backhanded him, sending him toppling backwards across the ring, stopping short of falling out of the ring. "Sorry about that! I don't know what that girl was thinking when she wired me like this," I said desperately as Emma controlled me to gang up on the smaller 'bot and drop low to the ground and kick his legs out from under him.

"Where on Earth did you learn to do any of that?!" Axon shrieked, getting up and pummeling me to the ground and landing a punch to my face. "Talk to Emma! She wired me with who knows what so I can actually speak her language!" I grunted, tossing him to the side and delivered a roundhouse kick to the jaw, sending Axon flying into the crowd.

The bell sounded, signaling the end of the match and returned to the corner at the command of the remote. "That was awesome! You did great!" Emma said, working to fix what had been damaged. "Don't touch that," I muttered, subtly covering my right arm, now adorned with a dent from Axon's fist.

A few minutes later, my new opponent entered the room and Emma squealed with delight at the sight of the robot on TV. "What's Atom doing here?" I whispered, my voice hardly audible over the wild cheering of the crowd. Emma shrugged but turned her attention to the man as he paid her for me winning the fight.

"Cool robot," a young voice said, getting me to look around a moment before looking down to the child that arrived with Atom. "Thanks. Say hello, Firelight," Emma replied, and I raised my hand a moment before dropping it to my side.

"Hi!" a cheerful voice said, turning my attention to the silver mech. I responded by jutting my chin in acknowledgement, cocking my head to the side when the smaller 'bot mimicked me. "Shadow Mode, nice. I got one of those, too," I said, appraising him before a grown man came to stand in front of me and said, "You actually pieced him together? We found Atom under a pile of crap in a junkyard."

"What are you doing here? I thought you were a professional boxer," I questioned, to which Atom laughed and said, "Yeah, but Charlie just wanted to stop and let Max run around for a while. Apparently, I somehow got roped into one of the matches going against some 'bot after he gets done with Axon." I laughed lightly at the 'bot and said, "That would be me. You just missed me kicking him into the crowd!" "Well, it sounds like I'm gonna have my hands full with you. Good luck!" Atom said before he was led away by his humans.

It was many hours later that we left the structure to head home only to get caught by a man standing by our truck. "You Firelight's trainer?" he asked, looking at me from over his sunglasses. "Yep, that's me," Emma replied casually. "Well, then I match for you. Thursday night at Crash Palace. Five thousand per match, twenty thousand if he wins," he said, handing Emma a piece of paper before walking away.

"I don't like him," I said, watching the man as he left. "I know you don't but we got you another match. Be happy you're getting back in the ring in a few days," Emma said, opening the back of the truck so I could climb in.

(Emma's POV)

Arriving back home after a couple hours of driving, I left Jett to unload Firelight as I ran inside the house. "Hey, Red, how was the fight?" Dad asked, catching me in a hug. "We won! We even got to put a couple dents in Atom during his surprise visit!" I cried happily, turning to watch Firelight walk into the room.

"I also acquired my first battle scar and I steadfastly refuse to have it fixed," the robot said, rubbing the dent carefully before making his way to the garage.

"Oh, and we were invited to Crash Palace in Texas for our next fight! Can we go, Dad? Please?" I begged as the man thought over it carefully before saying, "You're not going alone. Crash Palace is an underground fighting circuit, so I guess I'll be coming along with you next week."

"Yes!"


End file.
